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Writing by David B. WilliamsWed, 03 Jun 2020 21:51:30 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.30Denny Imageshttp://geologywriter.com/blog/stories-in-stone-blog/denny-images/
http://geologywriter.com/blog/stories-in-stone-blog/denny-images/#commentsWed, 29 Apr 2020 19:56:05 +0000http://geologywriter.com/?p=3337Continue reading Denny Images]]>A variety of people have asked me to post some images of Denny Hill so here they are. These are some of what I think of as lesser known photographs.

July 1907 – Few things were more exciting than watching the regrade in process.

August 20, 1907 – A composite of two photographs taken by Asahel Curtis.

1929 – Sixth and Blanchard, looking to the south. The conveyor belts carried material to a central point, where it was taken by another conveyor belt to be dumped into Elliott Bay

1929 – Aerial view showing the conveyor belts feeding to the central line that ran out to Elliott Bay

]]>http://geologywriter.com/blog/stories-in-stone-blog/denny-images/feed/0Homewaters — Articles related to the bookhttp://geologywriter.com/blog/stories-in-stone-blog/homewaters-articles-related-to-the-book/
http://geologywriter.com/blog/stories-in-stone-blog/homewaters-articles-related-to-the-book/#commentsWed, 22 Apr 2020 16:25:23 +0000http://geologywriter.com/?p=3327Continue reading Homewaters — Articles related to the book]]>Here are a few articles I have written that relate to my next book, Homewaters: Human and Natural History in Puget Sound.

]]>http://geologywriter.com/blog/stories-in-stone-blog/homewaters-articles-related-to-the-book/feed/0John de Fuca’s Strait – Puget Sound Map 1797http://geologywriter.com/blog/john-de-fucas-strait-puget-sound-map-1797/
http://geologywriter.com/blog/john-de-fucas-strait-puget-sound-map-1797/#commentsMon, 18 Nov 2019 14:50:56 +0000http://geologywriter.com/?p=3261Continue reading John de Fuca’s Strait – Puget Sound Map 1797]]>Now we know what the Strait of Juan de Fuca could have been called. Or at least it could have been so, according to cartographer John Lodge, who engraved this map in 1797. Created to show the discoveries of Captain James Cook throughout the Pacific Ocean, the map also contains a few intriguing features in the Pacific Northwest.

The most obvious is one of the more original names for the long waterway that separates the future British Columbia from the future Washington State. I also like the spelling of Mt. Olimpius and Shoal Water, for what became Shoalwater and later Gray’s Harbor. And, despite the map coming out five years after George Vancouver named Puget’s Sound, it does not appear on the map. But then again, Mr. Lodge was highlighting Captain Cook’s discoveries. Curiously though Cook did not think that there was what he called the “pretended Strait of Juan de Fuca.”

]]>http://geologywriter.com/blog/john-de-fucas-strait-puget-sound-map-1797/feed/0Seattle’s Safe from Earthquakeshttp://geologywriter.com/blog/stories-in-stone-blog/seattles-safe-from-earthquakes/
http://geologywriter.com/blog/stories-in-stone-blog/seattles-safe-from-earthquakes/#commentsTue, 15 Oct 2019 20:01:49 +0000http://geologywriter.com/?p=3247Continue reading Seattle’s Safe from Earthquakes]]>I bet you didn’t know that Seattle is safe from earthquakes. According to a University of North Carolina geologist Collier Cobb it is. He had this to say to a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce: “Other sections may suffer earthquakes, but Seattle, set in the deepest glacial drift yet discovered on this continent, has a shock absorber which makes the city immune from disaster from quakes.” Sadly he was wrong but then again, Dr. Cobb made his comment in October 1920.

Cobb arrived in Seattle after spending six weeks exploring the shorelines of Alaska and Puget Sound. In a his speech to the Chamber, he noted that Seattle’s “wonderful harbor, unmatched anywhere on this continent” had been carved out less than 2,000 years ago by glacial action. During this process, the ice generated 900 feet of glacial drift, which he defined as “the scrapings of the best top soil of other sections.” This glacial action was the “most recent on the face of the globe.” Because of the great depth of the drift, its shock absorbing quality meant that “there are no sharp faults, which can make for a serious seismic disturbance here…Seattle is secure for all time.”

We now know that Cobb was wrong on all accounts. The glacial ice and water flowing under it did carve out the region but that was roughly 16,500 years ago. We also know that three major faults zones affect Seattle. 1. The deep Benioff zone quakes, which moved in 1949, 1965, and 2001. 2. Cascadia Subduction, which last moved in January 1700, had a magnitude of more than 9.0, and generated a tsunami that hit Japan. 3. The Seattle Fault Zone, which last moved about 1,100 years ago and produced more than 20 feet of uplift. Oh well. It was a nice thought.

Seattle Times June 30, 1925

]]>http://geologywriter.com/blog/stories-in-stone-blog/seattles-safe-from-earthquakes/feed/0Doane’s Oyster Pan Roasthttp://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/doanes-oyster-pan-roast/
http://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/doanes-oyster-pan-roast/#commentsMon, 07 Jan 2019 01:09:22 +0000http://geologywriter.com/?p=3138Continue reading Doane’s Oyster Pan Roast]]>I am starting work on my chapter about shellfish for my Puget Sound book. This one will focus on Olympia oysters and geoducks. One of the first interesting discoveries was Doane’s Oyster House in Olympia, which Captain Woodbury Doane opened sometime in 1880. After his youth in Maine, he made it the west coast as part of that migration of ambitious hopefuls seeking gold, first in California then up the Fraser River in 1862.

After arriving in Olympia, he opened his oyster house and developed his legendary Oyster Pan Roast. Made with the local Olympia oysters, a sizable hunk of butter, ketchup, tabasco sauce, “old fashioned pepper sauce,” Worchestershire sauce, and salt. The concoction was then poured over toast, on a platter with pickles and coffee or beer. Cost was thirty-five cents. Long time Seattle Times writer, C.T. Conover called the dish “unquestionably the culinary masterpiece of that period (1880s to 1890s) on Puget Sound and to my mind it has not been rivaled by the works of French chefs of a later day.”

Curiously, one of the “most famous” recipes from New York is the oyster pan roast from the Grand Central Oyster Bar. According to one article, the recipe sounds like it was stolen from Olympia, with a few modifications. “The fortified clam juice is added to the pan with unsalted butter. After that comes to a boil, the oysters are added, and then rest of the stew ingredients: celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, Heinz chili sauce, and half and half.”

Doane died in Olympia in 1903, honored as one of the people who helped put Olympia and its oyster on the map, or at least on the dinner table.

From Seattle Times: October 1923

]]>http://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/doanes-oyster-pan-roast/feed/1Changes to Seattle Walks – Walk 3: Stories in Stonehttp://geologywriter.com/blog/stories-in-stone-blog/changes-to-seattle-walks-walk-3-stories-in-stone/
http://geologywriter.com/blog/stories-in-stone-blog/changes-to-seattle-walks-walk-3-stories-in-stone/#commentsWed, 12 Dec 2018 22:02:39 +0000http://geologywriter.com/?p=3099Continue reading Changes to Seattle Walks – Walk 3: Stories in Stone]]>One of the challenges of writing book of walks in Seattle is that the city changes. Buildings go up. Buildings get taken down. Roads are closed. Paths change. I have been pretty lucky in the walks I chose, except for one. One of the buildings (the base of the Rainier Tower) that I discuss in Walk 3 – Stories in Stone was torn down. Below is the fix for that walk, which we were able to incorporate in the third printing of the book.
Updated map for Walk 3 – Stories in Stone, Seattle Walks

The change begins on Page 42 with the directions to Stop 4 and continues to stop Page 44 and the directions to Stop 6. Directions are in Bold.

Walk two blocks east to Fourth Avenue, turn right, walk four blocks south on the east side of the street, and cross Marion Street to the brick Rainier Club (810 Fourth Avenue). Turn left to look at the retaining wall that stairsteps up Marion.

(4) The cream-colored stone atop the brick walls of the Rainier Club is the Salem Limestone, quarried near Bedford, Indiana. It became popular following the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, when the fair’s White City helped make white the color for buildings. As far as I have been able to determine, the Salem is the only stone used in all 50 states, including structures such as the Empire State Building (amazingly, the hole where the stone was quarried still exists as no other stone has come out of it), the Pentagon, and more than 750 post offices. (The Salem also plays a central role in the movie Breaking Away.)

Deposition of the Salem occurred 300 to 330 million years ago in a shallow, clear, tropical sea, when what we think of the Midwest looked like the Bahamas. The warm waters supported a diverse range of swimming, crawling, and bottom-dwelling invertebrates. After dying their bodies collected in a watery cemetery on the sea floor, eventually solidifying into a 40-to-100-foot-thick stone menagerie. This matrix of corpses formed a limestone that cuts cleanly and evenly in all directions.

To see some of these fossils, look at the limestone blocks atop the retaining wall. The most common recognizable fossils are 1/8- to 1/3-inch-wide discs of crinoids, a relative of starfish and sand dollars that resemble plants with a root-like base, a flexible stem made of stacked discs, and a flower-like body. Another common fossil is from a colonial animal known as a bryozoan, which looks a bit like Rice Chex cereal. Wave action from long ago tides broke up most of the shells from the animals that plied the sea but careful investigation also reveals brachiopods, which look like clam shells, and ice-cone shaped corals.

Continue east on Marion one block to Fifth Avenue, turn right and walk to the F5 Tower (801 Fifth Avenue) at the end of the block.

(5) Like Rome, Seattle was built on seven hills. Both cities also share a building stone: a type of limestone known as travertine. Coincidentally, most of the travertine used in Seattle came from quarries in Tivoli, about 20 miles east of Rome. These quarries provided stone for the Colosseum and St. Peter’s Colonnade,in Rome, as well as the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the best known travertine-clad building in this country. All of the rock from the quarries formed less than 200,000 years ago with a peak around 80,000 years ago, making this some of the youngest stone in the building trade.

Unlike the Salem Limestone at the previous stop on the walk, travertine does not form in the sea. Instead, it precipitates from calcite-rich water expelled from springs or in caves. A modern example is Yellowstone National Park’s Mammoth Hot Springs where hot water rises through cracks and emerges in pools. When this occurs, the calcite in the water settles and accumulates layer upon layer. It can occur so quickly that a half-inch-thick bed can form in a single year, as opposed to marine-deposited limestone, which takes thousands of years to deposit an inch of calcite.

The stone panels in front of you are the bedding planes, or the area where the calcite accumulated. Small honeycombs cover many panels. The holes were once gas bubbles, which were coated so quickly in calcite that they turned to stone. If you look at the side, or edge, of the panels, you can see bedding planes.

Builders used travertine indoors and outdoors in Seattle, though no other building uses this style of bedding plane panels. All others use panels cut perpindicular to the bedding; these panels look a bit like layered Swiss cheese. You can see this type of panel clearly on the walk to the next stop, at the Pacific Building (720 Third Avenue). In other structures, like the Washington Federal Savings building (425 Pike Street), workers filled in the holes in the bedding. This is for preventative maintenance. In a colder location, such as Boston, water seeps into the cracks, freezes, expands and breaks the rock. Seattle’s moderate winter climate, however, has little effect on the travertine.

Turn right on Columbia Street, cross to the south side, and walk west to Third Avenue (location of Pacific Building). Turn left on Third and walk south to Cherry Street, turn right, or west and continue one block to Second Avenue. Turn left at Second and stay on the east side until you reach the Smith Tower (502-508 Second Avenue) at Yesler Way.

]]>http://geologywriter.com/blog/stories-in-stone-blog/changes-to-seattle-walks-walk-3-stories-in-stone/feed/1The Straits of Anianhttp://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/the-straits-of-anian/
http://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/the-straits-of-anian/#commentsFri, 26 Oct 2018 15:17:34 +0000http://geologywriter.com/?p=3082Continue reading The Straits of Anian]]>In my previous post, I mentioned how Apostolos Valerianos sailed north to about 47 degrees latitude. His goal at the time was a shortcut between Asia and North America, which mapmakers had started to place on maps in the middle 1500s. Known as the Straits of Anian, it would cut off thousands of miles of sailing by allowing ships to travel directly across North America instead of south around South America.

During his conversation with Lok, Valerianos said that he had taken his ships into the Straits and sailed for more than twenty days, finding a land rich in gold, silver, and pearls. He then returned to Mexico, where he had started, where he reported he had “done the thing which he as sent to doe.”

Antonio Zatta, 1776, L’America

Coincidentally, I was at Seattle Pacific University yesterday in the Ames Library and came across a map from 1770. It was created by Venetian cartographer Antonio Zatta. As you can see, there is no Puget Sound nor even a Strait of Juan de Fuca. Instead Zatta depicts the Strait of Anian, which providentially connects via a river and a small lake north to a much larger lake that in turn allows one to continue east to another body of water and finally out it to Hudson’s Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. And if that wasn’t good enough, note the Bella Riviera, which stretches across almost the entire continent. If only the landscape conformed to the imaginations of cartographers.

]]>http://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/the-straits-of-anian/feed/2Before Puget Sound was Foundhttp://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/before-puget-sound-was-found/
http://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/before-puget-sound-was-found/#commentsThu, 25 Oct 2018 15:06:14 +0000http://geologywriter.com/?p=3077Continue reading Before Puget Sound was Found]]>I was recently down in Astoria, Oregon, where I visited the fabulous Columbia River Maritime Museum. In addition, to great displays on the mouth of the Columbia, the legendary “Graveyard of the Pacific,” the museum has a fine collection of early maps of the Pacific Coast, showing the river and further north. Several were quite fascinating, particularly one from 1794, which depicts James Cook’s third and final voyage along the coast. It was drawn by William Faden.
Chart of the N. W. Coast of America and the N. E. Coast of Asia. (1794)

Not only does it show the dates of when Cook sailed but it also illustrates some of the great stories associated with early exploration.
1. Puget Sound does not exist as no European had yet to sail into the inland sea, though by the time of the publication of the map George Vancouver had made it down into what he called Puget’s Sound.
2. The North Sea of Valerianos Apostolos – He is the Greek pilot who may or may not have sailed into what became known as the Strait of Juan de Fuca in 1592. In 1596, Valerianos (most historians switch the order of his names) told English entrepreneur Michael Lok about sailing for many days into a strait at about 47 degrees north latitude. Ever since then, people have debated whether the Greek did so.
3. Fucas Pillar – One key feature that Valerianos mentioned was a pillar at the mouth of the strait. In 1788, British fur trader Charles Duncan described the pillar, which was then put onto maps.

Alexander Dalrymple map of 1790, showing the pillar seen by Duncan

4. No Vancouver Island – Spanish explorers were the first to sail around the island, which was initially known as Quadra and Vancouver’s Island. Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra sailed into what is now Nootka Sound in 1792.
5. What isn’t shown is that when Cook sailed by the Strait of Juan de Fuca in 1778, he wrote in his journal “It is in the very latitude we were now in where geographers have placed the pretended Strait of Juan de Fuca but we saw nothing like it; nor is there the least probability that iver any such thing exhisted.” Obviously, this map reflects the findings of Duncan.

]]>http://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/before-puget-sound-was-found/feed/0My beginnings as an Historianhttp://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/my-beginnings-as-an-historian/
http://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/my-beginnings-as-an-historian/#commentsTue, 11 Sep 2018 14:26:46 +0000http://geologywriter.com/?p=3048Continue reading My beginnings as an Historian]]>One of the great mysteries many of us address in life is how we ended up where we are. What decisions did we make that set us down a certain path? Was it nature or nurture, luck or planning? My path toward my present life focusing on human and natural history in Seattle was one that I started very early in life.

The other day, friends hosted a baby shower and requested that we bring our own baby picture. Looking through a scrap book my parents put together, I quickly found the picture I wanted but then got stuck reading through old report cards. I was able to confirm what my mom had told me when I graduated from college: “David, you never stopped talking in school.” Apparently I disturbed the other children, did not always pay attention, could be a bit too enthusiastic, and didn’t always read tests carefully. Oh well.

But then I came to my third grade report card, written by Ms. Bangs, who I remember as a gray haired, elegant and nice, older woman. I don’t remember much from the class, though I can still picture the room on the second floor of Isaac I. Stevens Elementary School.

At the time my father worked at the University of Washington and his boss was Brewster Denny, Arthur Denny’s great grandson. (I mentioned an interview with Brewster in my book, Too High and Too Steep.) According to Ms. Bangs, Brewster also wrote a letter for, or to, me. Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy. Nor is there a copy of it in his papers in Special Collections at the University of Washington.

She also noted that we read Arthur Denny’s Dream, which of course I have no recollection of doing but with the power of the internet, I found a copy and bought it. The book was written in 1953 by Mrs. Marie Hatten, a fourth grade teacher at Fairview School, and illustrated by ten of her students. Using Four Wagon’s West, a book written by Arthur Denny’s granddaughter, Roberta Frye Watt, as a guide, Hatten’s students drew pictures with crayons, which they later modified with colored paper. Hatten then typed a story to go with the pictures.

The book tells the story of Arthur, his wife Mary, and their two children, and how they traveled west by wagon. Joined by Arthur’s four bachelor brothers and several other family members, they killed a buffalo, carved their names at Independence Rock, caught fish, and had some issues with the Native inhabitants along the way. As one might imagine for a book of its era, it is racist toward the Indians that the Denny’s met enroute and in Seattle. What also stands out is the creative artwork. The illustrations depict the four brothers and the Mercer Girls.

But back to my report card, where Ms. Bangs added that amazing line. “I’m glad David shows such an interest in Seattle history.” Wow, who knew that the path I now trod started so early in life. Unfortunately, Ms. Bangs died before I wrote my first book about Seattle history but I like to think she would have been proud of what her somewhat rambunctious, often distracted and distracting student became.

]]>http://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/my-beginnings-as-an-historian/feed/1Seattle Maps 18, 19, and 20 – Magnolia Bluffhttp://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/seattle-maps-18-19-and-20-magnolia-bluff/
http://geologywriter.com/blog/street-smart-naturalist-blog/seattle-maps-18-19-and-20-magnolia-bluff/#commentsTue, 14 Aug 2018 20:05:51 +0000http://geologywriter.com/?p=3035Continue reading Seattle Maps 18, 19, and 20 – Magnolia Bluff]]>The other day I spent eight hours at Discovery Park watching the tide go out and return. It was the best experience I have had of the dramatic change that occurs in Puget Sound on a daily basis as the level of the water changes as much as 15 feet in a day. Doing this also prompted me to take a look at three maps I have that show the Magnolia peninsula.

What stands out is that each of the maps shows the low tide terrace platted with streets. It is yet another case of “what the hell were the planners thinking?” I guess they imagined building some sort of wall that would keep the tide out.

It’s also interesting to note the original platted street names changed from 1894 to 1913, followed by another small change from 1913 to 1934. I also like how in the 1913 map, West Point Avenue is planned to cut right across West Point.

Board of State Land Commissioners Map of Seattle Harbor, Surveyed Oct, Nov, Dec. 1893 and Jan. 1894 (click on each map to open a larger version)